2-Man Company Promises To "Save" Dying NM Coal Plant With (Of Course!) Carbon Capture
It's been 14 years since Jason Selch, an energy analyst and investor, mooned his bosses at Bank of America. His latest bold move: trying to save a threatened coal plant. Selch and his current business partner, Larry Heller, were enlisted by the city of Farmington, N.M., this year to help save the San Juan Generating Station in northwestern New Mexico. The two New York investors responded by pitching a carbon capture makeover of the plant that could cost over $1 billion.
Critics are ripping the proposal as an unrealistic long shot — one that could introduce financial risk and little gain — and questioning Heller and Selch. But the two men, operating under the name Enchant Energy, insist the project could have implications for the world's coal-fired power. "It can't all be shut down at once," Heller said. "And the solution has to start somewhere."
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Opponents say the proposal gives hope to workers at the plant and a nearby mine that's unlikely to be fulfilled. The Public Service Company of New Mexico, or PNM, is seeking to take two coal-fired generating units offline at San Juan in mid-2022. The utility, which is part of PNM Resources Inc., has said it won't buy power from San Juan after it exits. PNM has argued the retirement would have environmental and economic benefits for customers.
"While Enchant Energy has an alluring name and while it purports to have compassionate community intent — its business model is not workable and its San Juan Generating Station retrofit pitch appears to be largely self-serving," the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said in a recent report. The institute says it conducts research and analyses on financial and economic issues tied to energy and the environment and receives funding from philanthropic organizations, including the Rockefeller Family Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The group, whose website says it promotes a shift to "a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy," said using carbon capture around coal-fired generation is "a mostly academic, unaffordable exercise." It said Selch and Heller's pitch is offering false hope and fiscal risk to Farmington.
The institute is not alone. Mariel Nanasi, executive director of a pro-renewables group called New Energy Economy, labeled the carbon capture plan "essentially preposterous" and "a pie-in-the-sky idea that doesn't make any economic sense." Questions include how the project may be financed and who might want its coal-fueled power. Selch and Heller remain undeterred. They visited Farmington this week to speak with people in that city, who found the duo after contracting with the law firm Thompson Hine LLP to determine whether there were investors or a group that would be interested in keeping San Juan operating. The city in an email said it would not take on any additional liability beyond what it has now with a 5% ownership in the plant.
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https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2019/07/19/stories/1060758683